In a recent local media report in Bashkortostan, it was reported that some officials of the republic cannot assemble a document in Bashkir language.
Classification
Bashkir together with Tatar belongs to the Kipchak-Bulgar (Russian: кыпчакско-булгарская) subgroup of the Kipchak languages. These languages have a similar vocabulary by 94.9%,[5] and they not only have common origin, but also a common ancestor in the written language — Volga Turki.
However, Bashkir differs from Tatar in several important ways:
Bashkir has dental fricatives /θ/ and /ð/ in the place of Turkic /t/, /d/, /s/ and /z/. For example, Turkish dost and Bashkir дуҫ (duŧ), Turkish adım and Bashkir аҙым (ađım), Turkish usta and Bashkir оҫта (oŧta), or Turkish uzun and Bashkir оҙон (ođon). Bashkir /θ/ and /ð/, however, cannot begin a word (there are exceptions: ҙур – "đur" [ðuɾ] 'big', and the particle/conjunction ҙа – "đa" [ða] or ҙә – "đä" [ðæ]. The only other Turkic language with a similar feature is Turkmen. However, in Bashkir, /θ/ and /ð/ are two independent phonemes, distinct from /s/ and /z/, whereas in Turkmen [θ] and [ð] are the two main realizations of the common Turkic /s/ and /z/. In other words, there are no /s/ and /z/ phonemes in Turkmen, unlike Bashkir which has both /s/ and /z/ and /θ/ and /ð/.
The word-initial and morpheme-initial /s/ is turned into /h/. An example of both features can be Tatar сүз (süz) and Bashkir һүҙ (hüđ), both meaning "word".
Common Turkic /tʃ/ (Tatar /ɕ/) is turned into Bashkir /s/, e.g., Turkish ağaç[aˈatʃ], Tatar агач ağaç[ɑˈʁɑɕ] and Bashkir ағас – ağas[ɑˈʁɑs], all meaning "tree".
The word-initial /ʑ/ in Tatar always corresponds to /j/ in Standard Bashkir, e.g., Tatar җылы cılı[ʑɤˈlɤ] and Bashkir йылы – yılı[jɯˈɫɯ], both meaning "warm". However, the eastern and northern dialects of Bashkir have the /j/ > /ʑ~ʒ/ shift.
The Bashkir orthography is more explicit. /q/ and /ʁ/ are written with their own letters Ҡ ҡ and Ғ ғ, whereas in Tatar they are treated as positional allophones of /k/ and /ɡ/, written К к and Г г.
Labial vowel harmony in Bashkir is written explicitly, e.g. Tatar тормышым tormışım and Bashkir тормошом – tormoşom, both pronounced [tʊɾ.mʊˈʂʊm], meaning "my life".[6]
Trilingual sign in Ufa Airport in Bashkir, Russian and EnglishBashkir keyboard layout
After the adoption of Islam, which began in the 10th century and lasted for several centuries, the Bashkirs began to use Turki as a written language. Turki was written in a variant of the Arabic script.
In 1923, a writing system based on the Arabic script was specifically created for the Bashkir language. At the same time, the Bashkir literary language was created, moving away from the older written Turkic influences. At first, it used a modified Arabic alphabet. In 1930 it was replaced with the Unified Turkic Latin Alphabet, which was in turn replaced with an adapted Cyrillic alphabet in 1939.
Occurs only in the first syllable. In most other contexts, especially in open syllables, it is an underlying /ij/, for example in words like ти [tij]/[tɪj]. Hence why the suffixes use the /ð/ consonant following this vowel, unlike /l/ after other vowels: тиҙәр (tiźär) /tijˈðær/, but not тиләр (tilär).
These two letters are used for /w/ phoneme when they are written after a back or front vowel respectively. As the vowel phoneme, they can only occur in the first syllable. Therefore if these letters are not in the first syllable, they occur after a vowel and are pronounced as /w/.
Only occurs in back vowel contexts (except loanwords). Indicates a glottal stop if placed after a vowel, acts as a syllable separator if placed after a consonant.
Only occurs in front vowel contexts (except loanwords). Indicates a glottal stop if placed after a vowel, acts as a syllable separator if placed after a consonant.
In Russian loans there are also [ɨ], [ɛ], [ɔ] and [ä], written the same as the native vowels: ы, е/э, о, а respectively.[7]
Historical shifts
Historically, the Proto-Turkic mid vowels have raised from mid to high, whereas the Proto-Turkic high vowels have become the Bashkir reduced mid series. (The same shifts have also happened in Tatar.)[9][6] However, in most dialects of Bashkir, this shift is not as prominent as in Tatar.
^¹ The phonemes /f/, /v/, /ʔ/ are found only in loanwords, and, in the case of /ʔ/, in a few native onomatopoeic words.
^²[β] is an intervocal allophone of [b], and it is distinct from [w]. [ɴ] is an allophone of [ŋ] in back vowel contexts. [c] and [ɟ] occur as allophones of [k] and [g] before [e], and both occur only in front vowel contexts.
/θ,ð/ are dental [θ,ð], and /ɾ/ is apical alveolar [ɾ]. The exact place of articulation of the other dental/alveolar consonants is unclear.
The form of the plural suffix is heavily dependent on the letter which comes immediately before it. When it's a consonant, there is a four-way distinction between "л" (l), "т" (t), "ҙ" (ź) and "д" (d); The vowel's distinction is two-way between "а" (after back vowels "а" (a), "ы" (ı), "о" (o), "у" (u)) and "ә" (after front vowels "ә" (ə), "е" (e), "и" (i), "ө" (ö), "ү" (ü)). Some nouns are also less likely to be used with their plural forms such as "һыу" (hıw, "water") or "ҡом" (qom, "sand").[6]
suffix consonant
-лар, -ләр
after all vowels except for и (iy)
баҡса (baqsa), "garden"
Pl.: баҡсалар (baqsalar)
сәскә (säskä), "flower"
Pl.: сәскәләр (säskälär)
-тар, -тәр
mostly after hard consonants – б (b), д (d), г (g), ф (f), х (x), һ (h), к (k), ҡ (q), п (p), с (s), ш (ş), ç (ŧ), т (t)
дуç (duŧ), "friend"
Pl.: дуçтар (duŧtar)
төç (töŧ), "colour"
Pl.: төçтәр (töŧtär)
-ҙар, -ҙәр
after approximants and some others – ҙ (đ), и (iy), р (r), у/ү (w), й (y)
тау (taw), "mountain"
Pl.: тауҙар (tawđar)
өй (öy), "house"
Pl.: өйҙәр (öyđär)
-дар, -дәр
after nasals and some others – ж (j), л (l), м (m), н (n), ң (ñ), з (z)
^Poppe, Nicholas N. (1964). Bashkir Manual. Research and Studies in Uralic and Altaic Languages. Vol. 36. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University. LCCN63-64521. OCLC1147723720.
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